TRANSACTIONS. 187 



it is here. This is the lan^-nas'c of one who forsook the 

 home of his youth, but has not yet buried its memories in 

 the pursuits of an active life. Such were the feelings of 

 the distinguished Laraartine, as portrayed iii the Memoirs 

 of his Youth, when it was determined that the old home- 

 stead should be severed and sold. "I was overwhelmed," 

 he says, "with grief; 1 gazed from afar with despair, at 

 that little gray spire on the slope of the hill, the roof of 

 the house, the clump of linden trees, which are seen from 

 the road, — and I said to myself, I can never again journey 

 by this road — I can never again turn my eye in this direc- 

 tion. This spire, this hill, this roof, these walls will re- 

 proach me all my life with having bartered them away for 

 a few bags of crown pieces." 



The valuator comes on, to appraise tlie land, and deter" 

 mine what can best be taken from the homestead witliout 

 serious injury to tlie wliole estate. But wherever the di- 

 vision is to be made, it severs some tender tie of the lieart. 

 Here is the vineyard wliich Ids father planted, and watered 

 with the sweat of his brow, — and there the meadow and 

 the orchard which cannot be relinquished. Here is a held 

 which contains the family burial ground, and there the old 

 mansion where he was born, and where he hoped to die in 

 his father's bed ! 



It is in vain. Nothing can be detached, without at the 

 same time detaching a fragment of tlic heart. 



This v»'ill be tlie sentiment of every man, whose heart is 

 not calloused by contact with dollars and cents. Wherever 

 a land title is put on record, there is recorded the incep- 

 tion of a local attacliment which nothing less permanent 

 can create, — and the more that soil is cultivated by the 

 hand of the proprietor, the more true and lasting becomes 

 the attachment. Each rod of ground has its peculiar mer- 

 its, and lays claim to the especial regard of its occupant. 



This sentiment exerts a wider influence and becomes 

 an element in the love of country. Originating within a 



